Rennes/PSG – Torres changes it all, Paris won’t fold… hits and misses! | OneFootball

This Sunday evening, Paris Saint-Germain drew 2-2 (Rennes/PSG video highlights) against Rennes on Matchday 1 of the 2026-2027 Ligue 1 season at Roazhon Park. Here are the highs and lows of the match.

The highs

❤️ Torres-Ruiz, the world champions to the rescue

One month after Spain’s world title triumph, Ferran Torres and Fabian Ruiz did it again together. Brought on at halftime, the new Parisian number 9 scored both goals in the comeback. Fabian Ruiz, introduced on the hour mark, provided both assists.

The first goal came from a run in behind, perfectly picked out by Ruiz. The second came from a Torres header on another delivery from his compatriot. Ruiz created, Torres finished: two substitutes were enough to give a completely different dimension to an attack that had been struggling until then.

Paris still refuses to die

The performance was not always good, but the character is still there. Trailing 2-0 until the 71st minute, after the defeat to Lens a week earlier, PSG could have accepted their fate. Instead, they kept pushing until they came back.

That dominance does not erase the flaws in the match, but it shows a team that keeps piling up chances even when it is playing poorly. Paris did not win, but once again it refused to lose.

Doué, the only starting forward who survived

Luis Enrique changed two members of his front three at halftime. Désiré Doué, however, stayed on. That was no coincidence: he had already been PSG’s most enterprising player and continued to trouble Rennes after the break.

Not everything he did was right, and he lacked efficiency, especially on a promising chance in the second half. But in an attack that lacked rhythm for a long time, Doué was the one who most tried to unsettle Rennes.

The lows

😡 Dembélé and Kvara, two different bad nights

Both were substituted at halftime, but not for exactly the same reasons. Dembélé found a few good positions without making the most of them. Kvaratskhelia, meanwhile, almost completely disappeared from dangerous areas.

Dembélé mainly lacked sharpness in his decision-making. Kvara looked drained and far too absent from the attacking play. The contrast with Torres, who scored twice after replacing Dembélé, inevitably made their first half look even duller.

A tidy midfield... but one that purrs along

Paris moved the ball around a lot without doing enough to shift Rennes’ block. The stat is almost cartoonish: 665 completed passes at 90%, yet Rennes were 2-0 up at halftime.

The issue, then, was not keeping the ball, but giving it speed and purpose. Paris controlled possession without controlling the game script. Luis Enrique’s changes brought the verticality that had been missing.

When they lose the ball, Paris remains too vulnerable

Marquinhos and Pacho do not deserve to be singled out as solely responsible. Pacho even finished with six defensive actions, the best total among the Parisians. But collectively, PSG once again left too much space whenever Rennes managed to break their initial press.

The absence of the suspended Nuno Mendes was also felt. Lucas Hernandez did not disgrace himself, but with the Portuguese international Paris loses the ability to defend large spaces and to accelerate immediately down the left flank. More than an individual flop from Marquinhos or Pacho, it is once again the team’s defensive balance that still needs fine-tuning.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.